Column 1

November 27, 2017

Yes, President Trump has declared opioid abuse a national emergency. But a hotel CEO is leading a much more targeted – and more promising – effort to address the country’s rampant addiction problem. Gary Mendell is leading an initiative for insurers to embrace evidence-based approaches to addiction treatment.

November 15, 2017

Last fall, the town of Huntington, W.Va., made national headlines when 27 people overdosed on heroin within four hours. Huntington’s blue-collar West Virginia county has since been dubbed the “overdose capital of America.” With an overdose death rate ten times the national average, it serves as the backdrop of Netflix’s startling new documentary, Heroin(e).

Posted Nov. 2017

Drugs and alcohol have become a pervasive problem in New Jersey's cities and suburban areas. The statistics below show the proof.

New Jersey releases a list of substance abuse cases reported by each school district every year, and the state Department of Education released its most recent data on Tuesday. Below are the lists of the school districts with the highest to lowest number of cases in 2015-16.

Column 2

November 22, 2017

Gyebi-Foster, executive director of a drug treatment program in West Baltimore, had 44 beds at his center for detox patients. But in the midst of a crisis that’s killing more than two city residents a day — more than are dying in the city’s historic violence — he had funding for only two thirds of those recovery slots.

November 14, 2017

Forty-four state attorneys general asked Congress on Tuesday to repeal a law that effectively strips the Drug Enforcement Administration of potent weapons against large drug companies that have allowed hundreds of millions of pain pills to spill onto the black market.

November 8, 2017

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ announced it is part of a national coalition of 16 health companies focused on helping curb opioid abuse.The move means it will agree to adopt eight “National Principles of Care” that focus on coverage of behavioral health options that have previously been criticized for lack of or limited coverage.

Posted November 2017

Good afternoon. I am Dr. Ponni Subbiah, Chief Medical Officer at Indivior. Thank you for theprivilege to address the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the OpioidCrisis. Indivior seeks to provide insight on: the patient journey, innovations in medicationassistedtreatment for addiction, and policies to prevent addiction, accelerate evidence-basedtreatment and enable long-term recovery for patients.

Column 3

Posted November 2017

On Thursday, June 8, 2017, the FDA said it wanted the oxymorphone product Opana ER removed from the market, capping years of controversy over the opioid painkiller. MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2015 published an investigation of how the FDA came to approve Opana ER and what had gone wrong. Here we republish that investigation to provide context for the recent FDA action.In 2006, in the midst of a growing opioid epidemic, the FDA approved the new narcotic painkiller Opana.It was a familiar drug.

November 17, 2017

A bond forged in the kind of tragic personal loss that has become all too common in the US — each of us had a son die from an addiction — compelled us to do something about the sorry state of addiction treatment today. That work is paying off, as many of the nation’s largest medical payers have just agreed to help close the shameful gap in treating addictions.

Posted November 2017

The New Jersey Attorney General's Office announced that it has filed a five-count lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, alleging a “direct link" between the opioid epidemic and the drugmaker's effort to boost profits by "deceptively" marketing the addictive prescription drugs. click on link to read entire article including quotes from Paul Ressler, President and CEO of TOPAC.

Column 4

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November 18, 2017

Nine months after Gov. Chris Christie vowed to add nearly 900 psychiatric and drug treatment beds to help halt the epidemic of opioid addictions and overdoses in the state, the governor announced Friday that 26 health providers have committed to open inpatient facilities and meet the demand within two years.

Nov. 2, 2017

How do you confront an epidemic that has claimed more lives than the HIV/AIDS crisis at its peak? How do you counteract a system that incentivizes the flow of prescription painkillers from doctors to patients and ends up getting 3 million Americans addicted each year?